False References to the Laws of the Southern States. 267 shall aid any such slave in running away master. In either case, in justice to the or departing from his master's or em- slave, and to secure him, as much as ployer's service, shall be, and he and possible, from such attempts, the tempter they is, and are, hereby declared to be should receive condign punishment. We guilty of felony, and being thereof con- believe the general opinion is against victed or attainted by verdict or confes- us, but, as the friend of the slave, we would sion; or being indicted thereof, shall desire to continue the act in force. It stand mute; or will not directly answer is our duty, as far as possible, to protect to the endictment; or will peremptorily our slave from all such acts of oppres challenge above the number of the jury, sion, injustice, or interference, as his poshall suffer death as felons, and be ex- sition makes him peculiarly liable to cluded and debarred of the benefit of Therefore, as the guiding and directing clergy." power, taking upon ourselves the responsibility in so far as we take the direction of his action, we should save him so far as in our power lies from the snares of the tempter. Our reviewer gives sundry quotations (or at least purporting to be such) from the laws of other states, all more or less ferocious, and which, not having a general law-library at hand, it is impossible for us either to confirm or refute; but we certainly have a right to conclude, in a series of assertions, that when the first two are so utterly false as we have proved the above to be, there is little faith to be attached to any of them. Here is certainly a law stern enough, but not against the slave. Here is punishment for the tempter, but none for the tempted. The punishment for the runaway slave is never, and has never been, death. In the act of actual resistance, he is certainly liable to receive death, as is any fugitive from law while resisting constituted authorities,—but there is not, and never has been, any law making the act of evasion a crime. The act just quoted against the person inveigling a slave is an old English law, and a strong disposition has existed on the part of the State of South Carolina to repeal it, as too severe for the offence. The action of the state has in this been only checked by abuse and mischievous interference with her legislation. In our own opinion, however, it is an act which, for the safety and comfort of the slave, should be kept in force. The object of it is to guard him from the attempts of evil-disposed persons, who, either with a view of gain, would abstract the slave and afterwards dispose of him to their own profit, or else maliciously inveigle him from the protection and direction of his vision for slaves by their masters, and to seize property of the offender for the purpose. Xvi. imposes death upon all persons wilfully killing a slave, and heavy fine for unusual and immoderate punishment of slaves. In the consolidated statutes of Louisiana, 1852, art. Slaves, we see (p. 523) that disabled, or old slaves, shall be provided for by their masters. "It shall be the duty of masters to procure sick slaves all spiritual and temporal assistance." Old slaves shall not be sold from their children. Children under ten shall not be separated from their parents, etc., etc. (p. 543.) Evidence of slaves may be received on the trial of slaves. In the Louisiana Gazette, as far back as 1806, now before us, there is an adver mild and equitable.-EDITOR. leans August 13th, 1805. The sweeping assertion so constantly made that our laws are, in their general bearing, cruel or neglectful of the slave is entirely unfounded. The truth is, that our laws are most carefully protective of the slave. Our reviewer quotes from a nameless correspondent, "a Barbadian by birth, who has himself owned slaves," to the following effect: "The picture of American slavery, in Uncle Tom, is not the less faithful, because a stranger, visiting the country sees so little of it; and because the gen eral conduct of slave-owners may be humane. The worst cases no one sees. Slavery was mitigated in our West Indian colonies by the small size of the islands and the check of public opinion, which reaches every corner. But in the remote districts of America, and even of Jamaica, what may and must have taken place when every master was a law to himself?" is the amount of it? When a man gets This reasoning is funny enough. What out of the reach of legal authority, in remote districts, where neither law nor public opinion can reach him, it is possible for him to commit crimes, for which, were he within the grasp of the law, he would be punished. Therefore the laws are bad. The worst cases no one sees! (how the gentleman finds out their ex lated against them by the Edinburgh Review, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Copper, &c., examined and refuted by James McQueen," and published in London, A. D., 1824? If ever corrupt witnesses and bitter, prejudiced falsehood, were held up to shame and obloquy, here we have damning proof against the so-called reformers, who, to satisfy a malevolent spite, or to gratify a sentimental whim, rushed headlong to the ruin of an innocent and prosperous people. We think it is Sterne who has beautifully remarked that "when it is once determined that a lamb shall be offered up, there may be sticks enough found under any hedge to complete the sacrifice." Jamaica was doomed (delenda est Carthago), and the scarce vital wrecks of her once triumphant prosperity now alone remain to show what fanatics can accomplish. But, says the reviewer, we cite legal docu ments. Ah! that is distressing, and we must give way before such authority, however the darkest perjury may have been concerned in the concocting of them. We are then condemned in the case of our brethren of Jamaica. Legal documents cannot be disputed. istence it is hard to determine, but let us see his corollary,) therefore the system is heinous which does not punish them. The general conduct of slave-owners is, it is acknowledged, humane-but, as it is possible that there may be some very wicked individuals in some very remote districts, where "the master is a law to himself," therefore the laws which endeavor to take such master under their cognizance are heinous and infamous. The facts in the gentleman's letter are entirely laudatory of our system. For the imaginary horrors, not we, but himself, must be answerable. Those crimes that no one sees, enjoy, unfortunately, all the world over, impunity from punishment. Would the reviewer and his Barbadian friend invent a remedy for this evil, they would certainly immortalize themselves. Let us imagine such a style of reasoning applied to any system but our own, and where is the egregious fool to receive it? Nothing goes farther to prove the ignorant vehemence of our accusers than such blind argument. The reviewer then goes on to cite from "the disgusting details of facts taken from legal documents;" "information sworn before the House of Commons, on occasion of "But," says somebody, "one of the the inquiry into the state of the West In- maxims which the devil in a late visit dian Colonies." We might easily plead upon earth left to his disciples is, when here that West Indian slavery is not our once you have got up, kick the stool from slavery, and that the laws of England, under you." Our reviewer evidently not ours, were answerable for the atroci thinks himself safely mounted now, and, ties there described. But we will be Lord! what a hurry he is in to kick more just to human nature. These facts away the stool of legal documents! are generally as false as those imputed to Some half-dozen pages or so after his the working of the system with us. The remarks upon Jamaica documents, havstatements there adduced bear upon their ing got his readers into a fine swing of face the impress of irrationality-many sentimental horrors, he thinks apparently of them are physically impossible, and, for it is high time to follow the advice of the rest, it is morally impossible that any the Rev. gentleman from the lower repeople should so combine the traits of civilization and brutal barbarism. One or the other must necessarily be put down. A people is civilized or barbaIn the transition state of semi-civilization they may be neither entirely, but to be both is impossible. A nation must either rise to the one or sink to the other condition. We do not deny that a nation of men may be morally brutes; but we do deny that a nation of civilized and enlightened Christian men-fellowcitizens of Englishmen of the nineteenth century, can be so. Further has our reviewer ever seen or heard of a work entitled "The West Indian Colonies; the calumnies and misrepresentations circu rous. gions, and with a quick glance roundnot, we presume, without a furtive wink at the knowing ones-he gives a most vigorous kick at the said stool, just as an unfortunate wight on the opposite side of the argument was triumphantly climbing thereon. "An American writer," he exclaims indignantly, "An American writer of a book, entitled England's Glory and her Shame, gives the result of his observations during a tour in the manufacturing districts of England, and draws a most appalling picture of the misery and degra dation of the manufacturers, to the great consolation, no doubt, of the American slave-owners, who are thus left satisfied Misery and Degradation of British Workmen-Slave Laws. 269 that if slavery is a bad thing, there is no alternative but something worse. Now, we happen to have ascertained, through the medium of a gentleman, who personally knew the author, that he set foot in Europe, but concocted his work partly from blue-books, and, perhaps, partly from imagination. It must however be added, in fairness to the author, that he was probably not aware of the amount of misrepresentation some of these bluebooks contain. They are the reports of the evidence taken before the committee on the ten-hours' bill; a work which too much resembled a supposed botanical examination of a certain farm and garden, resulting in a collection of a few nettles out of one field, and four or five thistles out of another, and a handful of groundsel from the garden, representing these as the produce of the estate." So much for legal documents. Excellent they are against the slave-holder, but o' the other side-bah! kick the stool over, and lo! your antagonist is sprawling on his back. And so Jamaica witnesses were right, and tenhours' bill witnesses were wrong. Documents here-documents there. White, they are; presto, black. True, they are; presto, false. Pretty jugglery! and worthy of all admiration! society, little heeding what poisonous skum and froth may thus be floated to the surface; and lauds himself at last, like a Robespierre, or his petty imitators in revolutionizing, a Buxton, a Clarkson, or a Stevens, even in the chaotic ruin which his madness has effected. France rose from her ashes to run a new course of greatness and of madness. For Jamaica, alas! there seems no phoenix life." Our reviewers and commentators generally lay a constant stress upon the "uncontrolled power" which they sup pose the slave-owner to possess. We would fain convince them that in truth no such power exists. This bugbear is the offspring of their own distempered imagination. "Although slaves, by the Act of 1740, are declared to be chattels personal, yet they are also, in our law, considered as persons with many rights and liabilities, civil and criminal." (Vide Negro Law of South Carolina, collected and digested by J. B. O'Neall, chapter 2d, section 11th.) "By the Act of 1821, the murder of a slave is declared to be a felony, without the benefit of clergy." (Ib. ib. section 15.) "To constitute the murder of a slave, no other ingredients are necessary than such as enter into the offence of murder at common law. So the killing on sudden heat and passion is the same as manslaughter." (Ib. ib. section 16.) "An attempt to kill and murder a slave by shooting at him, held to be a misdemeanor (State vs. Mann), and indictable as assault with intent to kill and murder." (Ib. ib. section 17.) "The unlawful whipping or beating of any slave, without sufficient provocation, by word, or act, is a misdemeanor, and subjects the offender, on conviction, to imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, and a fine not exceeding $500. (Ib. ib. section 18.) Too truly has Mr. McQueen remarked in his work upon Jamaica, of which we but now made mention, that "the French Revolution, which, with its infamous principles, convulsed the world, boasted to have been built upon the very foundations on which Mr. Clarkson grounds his charge against the West India Colonies, namely, 'Nature and Reason! Nature and Reason are truly high authorities, but too often, like the cheating oracles of old, do they render a doubtful response, the erroneous interpretation of which becomes a snare to the feet, and a pit of destruction to the hasty interpreter of destiny. Long and laborious is the task of him who would read the truth. Like the worshipper at the cave of Trophonius, a life-long sadness, a wearing out of soul and body, in the eager pursuit of the great reality, is the price to be paid for its acquisition. The enthusiast seldom reaches it. Blindly zealous, ignorantly active, in proportion as he has the least certain "It is the settled law of this state,foundation for his opinions, he defends that an owner cannot abandon a slave them with impulsive fervor; stirs, in needing either medical treatment, care, fanatic haste, the bubbling cauldron of food, or raiment. If he does, he will be "The Act of 1740, requires the owners of slaves to provide them with sufficient clothing, covering, and food; and if they should fail to do so, the owners, respectively, are declared to be liable to be informed against, subjected to fine, &c. (Ib. ib. section 25.) liable to any one who may furnish the same." (Ib. ib. section 27.) can be inflicted on a man in this life worse than slavery in the fact that the punishment affixed to crimes committed by the slaves is always death. Cases of arson, theft, and burglary, which would be comparatively lightly dealt with, if committed by white men, are all death to the slave." And then comes a flourish from the "Cincinnati Herald," ending with a marvelously ferocious, “He can be killed. Let him be killed." By act of 1740, slaves are protected from labor on the Sabbath-day. The violation of the law in this respect subjects the offender to a fine of £5 current money, equal in value to $3.70 for every slave so worked." (Ib. ib. section 28.)* Surely these should suffice to show that the owner's power is not "uncontrolled." However he may evade the law when he hides himself in the "re- "We should very much like to know," mote districts" of which the Barbadian as the old song saith, whether our reex-planter discourses, he is kept in check viewer means to claim exemption from so long as the arm of the law is long all response and dispute, for himself as enough to reach him. We presume that well as for Mrs. Stowe, on the plea of the every country has some point within its unattackableness of works of fiction. Is limits, where law penetrates with diffi- his article, too, a so-called work of fiction? culty. England, too, has her moors and Verily, whether or not he claim for it her high-roads; aye, and-perhaps worse the merit, we must give our mite of apthan either-the purblind alleys of her probation to the inventive genius theregreat cities, where crime boldly treads, in displayed. Truly, it is full of "most or cunningly hides herself. But surely quaint and admirable inventions." For not therefore shall we say, because her fear, however, that some simple blocklaws are sometimes inefficient, that all heads should really imagine that our are iniquitous. Our reviewer triumph- talented brother of the quill meant these antly remarks that the opponents of witty sallies to be taken as literal truth, Mrs. Stowe, in not denying the possibility, we will, for the benefit of such dundervirtually admit the truth of her state- pates, answer his statements seriously. ments. Upon the same principle of ar- The reviewer will find, by a glance at gument, what fearful pictures might as the statutes of England, that arson and possibilities be deduced from the institu- burglary are both in his own happy land tions of every existing state of society! punishable with death. In most of our What law, what bond,-what tie, states, we believe,-and certainly in might not be abolished if possible abuse South Carolina, from which we write, were sufficient to condemn it? Ruler the old English law is for these and subject, servant and master,-pa- crimes retained in force, alike for white rent and child,-husband and wife, and black. For theft, we have abolished cast all to the winds! These may be, the more severe punishment still retainnay, more, these are all abused,-daily ed by English law, (which frequently, as abused, brutally abused. "Nature and the learned reviewer no doubt knows, Reason!" cries the old school of god- pronounces death as the penalty for the improvers. "Higher-law!" responds the purloining of a few shillings' worth of new. On! on! what next? Where property,) and have substituted, accordshall we destroy? Say ye, "what ing to the offence, lighter punishment, next?" Ask ye "where" Nay, 'tis a alike for white and black. For both, the foolish prejudice to doubt. Sweep every legal penalty is the same. One differthing! everywhere! The Goth and the ence, however, we must acknowledge. Vandal of old found something to spare, While the law is the same for both, there --something to respect. Not so our in- is, it must be confessed, great inequality novators. Excelsior! Communism and in the administering of it. Justice is no Fraternity!-Barbarism and Brutality! longer even-handed. One side may God of Heaven! pity this world which often escape the law, which rigorously Thou hast made! pursues the other. But which is it? We fear our transatlantic friends will hardly credit us, when we answer: The negro. And yet the thing explains itself easily enough! The white man, encroaching upon the rights of society, becomes a public nuisance, which it is The reviewer says there is a plain admission on the part of the Slave State Legislatures that there is nothing that *But for the complete slave laws of South Carolina and other Southern States, see De Bow's Industrial Resources, Art. “ Slavery." Laws affecting American Slaves and British Subjects. 271 "The amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are dictated solely by the master." necessary to keep in check, and the the indulgence of his own vices; but he only means of so doing is by such bodily is, in return for this constraint, insured a restraint and suffering as shall hold him comfortable maintenance for himself in fear of future transgression. It is, and family under all circumstances; in therefore, to the interest of society that sickness and in health; in feeble youth he should be punished, and he is punish- and in tottering age; through good reed accordingly. The negro, under simi- port and through evil report. Even in lar circumstances, will often have his his vices he is saved from that lowest master to stand between him and the degradation of unprotected misery which law. For offences not too notoriously the white man must meet. The lowest criminal, indemnification from the mas- slave cannot sink to the degradation of ter to the injured person, oftenest ends the outcast white. the affair altogether. Where the state as prosecutor is not forced to take cognizance of the offence, the master can frequently buy off individual prosecution, and both interest and humanity incline him to do so. Interest, because the slave, unenfeebled by imprisonment and stripes, is a valuable property for which he is willing to pay; humanity, because the slave, in his childlike, dependent position, becomes to him a part of self, which he would rather correct with the mercy of a father than the severity of a judge. He buys him off therefore. Society is satisfied, because the master thus renders himself the virtual sponsor of the slave, making it his own interest to prevent further misdemeanor. The negro gets his whipping, goes home to warm himself by his fire, and perhaps laugh in his sleeve at "Massa," who thinks, “dat kind o' lashin ebber hut nigga," while the white man bears the double infliction of imprisonment and stripes. In England, for a similar offence, if mercy so tempered justice, (as we know it now oftenest does,) so far as to spare life, the offender is glad with that to escape, banished from hearth and home, wife and children, a disgraced exile to he knows not whither. This is untrue. The law, as we have shown, protects the slave from Sabbathday labor, and another section (vide O'Neall's Digest, chap. 2d, section 29), part of an old English act, limits his labor to from 14 to 15 hours per day. The time here allotted for labor is, however, so much more than is now requir ed of the slave that the law is in fact of non-effect. The working hours are in South Carolina from 8 to 12, varying with the season and exigencies of the crop, with occasional intermission of holidays and half holidays, which, if "dictated solely by the master," are not, we presume, on that account to be considered as obnoxious. If the duchesses of Stafford-house could be instrumental in giving to each of their tenants an occasional merry holiday, it is scarcely to be presumed that their vassals would take it in dudgeon, because inconsistent with their dignity as men. He may be separated from his family." "He can make no contracts, has no legal right to property.” And yet, as a fact, there is less separation among negro families than among whites. Starvation drives harder than The reviewer gives what he calls a the hardest master. The property of the digest of our slave-laws,-containing slave, for property he always to a certhirteen propositions, almost every one tain extent has, he holds by a stronger of which either places things in their tenure, upheld as he is by his master's falsest light, or are in their grossest statements utterly untrue. His proposition that the labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated, we answer by saying that he receives a very much larger compensation in actual value, in housing, in food, and in raiment, than the halfstarved artisan of many a proud metropolis. He is, it is true, obliged, in proper weather and when in health, to do his work. He has not the right by idleness or drunkenness to starve his family for protection, than many a poor freeman who, by taxes and tithes, individual trickery and legal frauds, finds himself juggled out of every right but that of dying unprotected, grateful to the disease which opens his prison door. "He cannot bear witness against the white man." Granted-and properly cannot-nor would the witness of a similar class be taken as of much it in England against the ros Every |